“God’s Timetable”
Writen By
Diane Craver
Around three years ago, my husband Tom said to me, “I think we should sell our house and land.”
“Why do you want to move?” I was surprised because we had built our Cape Cod house after we bought ten acres. At this time, we’d lived in our house for twenty-one years. I had no desire to move. Both of us had saved labor expenses by doing some of the work inside ourselves. With raising six children in this house, we had created tons of family memories.
“I want to downsize. I think we should buy a ranch. Or we can build a one floor house on our land.”
Although only in his late fifties, Tom already had one hip replacement and arthritis in several joints. I understood why he didn’t want to continue taking care of our land. At one time, he’d farmed our back fields to raise crops for our chickens and pigs. Without livestock and doing farming any longer, he was ready to downsize.
I didn’t get on board with this idea at first, but then agreed with him that it was a good time to downsize to a smaller house with less land. Instead of having six children at home, we only had two daughters with special needs living with us. We started looking at ranches and found a brick house with five acres. Tom and I loved it. With three bedrooms, the house would be perfect for our family of four. A large portion of the land was wooded so would require little mowing. We happily wrote a contract and listed our house with a realtor. No one bought our house so we were unable to buy the ranch. We decided it wasn’t God’s plan for us to have the house. Eventually, we wrote contracts on two other houses but lost both to other buyers. After no success with a realtor, we tried to sell our house ourselves.
When we couldn’t buy a house and sell ours, Tom and I decided to build a ranch style house on our own acreage and sell our present home with the least amount of land possible. Tom had the zoning person for our township look over our possible land site and building plans. The zoning guy seemed sure that our application would be approved to build on our land. Tom and I picked out house plans and signed a building contract. We paid the $200 fee to the township trustees and were excited about our floor plans for our new house. We were shocked when the township rejected our application. The township trustees informed us that we might win against their strict building requirements if we hired a lawyer. We decided not to spend money on a lawyer with no guarantee we’d win.
God always knows best. Tom and I are glad our house didn’t sell when we had it on the market which would’ve caused a move to a smaller house, because our twenty-four-year-old daughter, Emily, moved back home last September. We never saw this coming.
After graduating from college with a degree in microchemistry, she took a year off to work in Columbus, Ohio and to apply to several optometry programs. She was accepted at several places, but her dream was to live in a warmer climate. She happily decided on Nova University in Florida. We moved her in July to Fort Lauderdale to start her education to become an optometrist. Because of her decision to live on campus and not wanting to take her older car, we tried to sell the Honda Civic. In the past, my husband has always sold our vehicles quickly. We were surprised when no one bought it. It ran great and was reasonably priced. I starting realizing that God knew Emily might need her car again, and told Tom that we better stop trying to sell it.
Emily hated working on cadavers which was required in the beginning of her program. She also disliked other aspects in this field of study. She received an A on her first exam but still felt like she had made a huge mistake. However, she tried to stick it out. After experiencing panic attacks, she withdrew. She’s now living at home with us to save money so she can pay off her college loans. Although she was only there for forty days, she’s responsible for several thousand in tuition and board plus her undergraduate college loan.
If we had sold our house, we could have made it worked and had our daughters share rooms, but it’s nicer for each woman to have her own space upstairs. Emily’s working and her schedule is different than her sisters. Another blessing is that we didn’t sell Emily’s car. Obviously, she needs it to drive to her job at University of Cincinnati.
Without feeling any urgency to move, we’ve taken the for sale sign down. Tom’s happy because the study I used for my writing is now his. He has his own “man cave” with his favorite chair and antiques in here. J I’m sure someday we still might downsize to a smaller house with less land, but I’m confident it will be according to God’s timetable for us. Not ours.
Life is so much easier when you trust God’s journey path for your life. As it says in Psalm 23:3, “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.”
Diane Craver enjoys her life with her husband, six children, daughter-in-law, and new grandchild in southwestern Ohio. Diane has published through a variety of houses, including Booklocker.com, Samhain, Desert Breeze, Whimsical Publications, and Victory Tales Press. She writes fun and inspiring stories filled with memorable characters. Diane gives thanks to God daily for all her wonderful blessings. To learn more about Diane and her writing, visit her website & blog at: http://www.dianecraver.com/ and http://www.dianecraver.com/blog.
Diane is the author of, A Christmas Gift, and The Proposal, out now! Friends, check out Diane's sites. She is a gifted writer and a sweet woman of God.
Diane, thank you for sharing with me and my readers. What a wonderful illistration of God's wondrous plan for our lives. He is forever showing us He knows best. I am still learning to quiet myself and allow Him to take the lead. I hope you return to share more of your heart and God's Word. Blessings to you sweet friend:)
